How do I find audio recordings of ordinary Iraqis and others in the middle east affected by U.S. occupation?

June 4, 2006 12:47 AM

What are some sources for audio recordings of everyday Iraqis speaking -- telling their stories, talking about their experience of the war and occupation, or talking about their feelings on any subject? I know about the excellent War News Radio site; I'm looking for more sites like that. I'm equally happy to find voices speaking in English or in Arabic.

If the speaking is in Arabic, it should be 1) accompanied by a written English translation and 2) uninterrupted (usually the problem on news shows is that you get a few seconds of a person talking in Arabic, but then their voice is buried underneath the voiceover of a translator speaking their words in English).

In addition to Iraqis I would be happy to hear voices of other people in the middle east who have also been affected by U.S. occupation.

This is for a non-profit personal project celebrating Iraqi voices and trying to represent some of the complexity of Iraqi wartime experience (and survival of Iraqi culture despite the war). So, ideally, the people responsible for the sites would consider letting me use or license their content (as War News Radio graciously agreed to do). In other words, probably the more "non-profit" or small the site, the better -- although I'm very grateful for all recommendations on any scale.

posted by allterrainbrain to Society & Culture (3 answers total)

While I normally wouldn't do a self link I feel this is kind of appropriate since you're asking about something I'm directly involved with. Alive in Baghdad is a site dedicated to the telling of Iraqi stories directly from Iraqi's. The journalist in charge of the site is currently in Jordan and will be for another month. While at home a lot of the posts are dedicated to his writings about the situation, while he's away he tries to post a fair amount of material directly from Iraqi's. We've been building up slowly but it seems like we might be finally picking up some steam. I'm an intern for the project. If this is to blatant of a self link please feel free to discard it.
posted by SteveFlamingo at 3:28 AM on June 4, 2006

SteveFlamingo, that link is FANTASTIC. Thank you so much. It includes three bonus things I'm really excited about (Arabic-language speech, female as well as male voices, and Creative Commons licensing!).

Keep 'em coming, folks!
posted by allterrainbrain at 3:53 AM on June 4, 2006

My friend went to Iraq, independently, last year. While there, he conducted a number of interviews with "man on the street" types, and filmed or made audio recordings of them. He wrote about it in his blog. You can read his first post about it here. Skip here to see links to the rest of the entries. There should be links to the audio and video in there.
posted by autojack at 8:18 PM on June 4, 2006